OXFORD - The Ole Miss football program has admitted to a secondary recruiting violation for public comments regarding a prospective student-athletes, the Clarion-Ledger has reported.

In a May 6 letter to the Southeastern Conference, the university acknowledged that a Level II secondary violation of NCAA bylaw 13.10.2 was committed when head coach Houston Nutt and assistant coaches made direct comments about several prospects that appeared in a story by Tom Dienhart, the national college football writer for Rivals.com.

No prospects were named in the story, but information was presented in such a way as to easily understand about whom the coaches were speaking. The story was posted on the website a week before national signing day.

The school's letter to the SEC was prompted by an earlier letter of inquiry by the NCAA. The NCAA letter was prompted by an unnamed third party.

Punishment for secondary violations does not normally include loss of scholarships. Earlier this month, it was learned the program would lose three scholarships from the 2010 signing class because of a low score with the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate (APR).